There's Just Something About Her
by nirricles-happen
Summary: "There was just something about Emma Pillsbury that made him feel like there could be more in his life." Slight AU Wemma
1. Chapter 1

The soft tapping of Will's shoe against the tiles drowned out the bustling of Breadstix's peak hour rush. He was seated in a booth, eyes locked on the basket of complimentary bread sticks in the middle of the table. He was dressed in a pressed light blue and white striped button down shirt, tucked into a pair of black trousers. He wore a matching blazer and pointy leather shoes, and his look was completed with a set of silver cufflinks, engraved with his grandfather's initials. He had almost worn a tie, considering the occasion, but ultimately the informality of the restaurant had convinced him to leave it in the back seat of his blue clunker in the parking lot.

In the pocket of his jacket, Will's fingers ran over the small jewellery box, which contained a ring worth more than he wanted to think about having spent. His eyes shot down to his watch: 8:13pm. Will had made these reservations weeks in advance, despite the relative ease of acquiring a booth at Breastix on any night of the week, and he had been reminding Terri morning and night for the past week about their dinner.

Where the _hell_ was she? Terri's shift at Sheets'n'Things should have finished at four, but she hadn't been home when Will had left their home at seven. He couldn't help but think that she'd succumbed to her Pottery Barn addiction, once again, spending money they certainly didn't have (not after buying the ring, anyway) on silly little knickknacks that would never leave her craft cupboard. And she had mentioned a sale before she'd left for work this morning…

Will chanced another look at his watch. Four minutes had passed. He averted his eyes from an approaching waitress, hoping she wasn't coming to talk to him. Thankfully, she handed something to the next booth over before turning and breezing back to the kitchen. He couldn't believe Terri; moreover, he couldn't believe himself. How could he think he was ready to commit to marrying her, when she couldn't commit to being on time for a single dinner date?

Will was about to commence his second year teaching high school Spanish at the local school, where the two of them had met as students themselves. Terri had been his high school sweetheart; he'd not hooked up with a single other girl through four years away from home at Ohio State College, and they had been living together since Will had moved back to Lima just over a year ago. Terri, on the other hand, had never left Lima, opting to take a one year retail course at the local community college and had been working at Sheets'n'Things for the past four years. It wasn't the highest paying job, but Will admired her ambition to succeed in a job which seemed so menial in the beginning. She was now campaigning (if that was the right word) to become manager of her store, which came with a number of great benefits.

Terri liked to improve Will, he thought. She liked to project the shortcomings of her own life onto his. There was barely a thing about him she wouldn't criticise. If she were here right now, he realised, she would be lecturing him about the breadstick he was absentmindedly picking apart in front of him. Though Will had never said anything demeaning about Terri's choice of career, she hadn't made her disdain for choice in becoming a teacher a secret. She had been pushing him toward accounting since his sophomore year at college, and it wasn't uncommon for him to find brochures and applications for firms like H.W. Mankin tucked into his briefcase.

'You seem a little nervous,' a sweet voice with a slight southern drawl cut through the relative silence of Will's thoughts. 'Waiting for someone?'

Will looked up at the woman sitting opposite him in the next booth over. He didn't recognise her – she must have been from a different part of town. Soft ginger ringlets framed her beautiful round face. Big brown eyes were set in her immaculate ivory skin; a cute button nose and prominent cheek bones led Will's eyes to her pink lips, from which peaked a set of bright white teeth. She was wearing a bright yellow ruffled blouse, and a light brown handbag was resting on the table beside her bill, which she was clutching with a hand of delicate and well-manicured fingers.

'Yes, my, uh-,' Will faltered as Terri's face popped into his mind. What were they, right now, exactly? He couldn't use 'fiancée' yet, since he was still in possession of the ring he was supposed to propose to her with, tonight, and 'wife' was obviously off the table. 'Girlfriend' seemed a little to juvenile, and 'partner' too senile. 'Um, yes, Terri should be coming soon.'

'Hmm, arriving separately...' the woman said, almost to herself. 'First date, I'm guessing?' she asked, addressing Will again. Before he had a chance to correct her, she continued, 'Well, if it doesn't work out, I've just moved here, and I'm never late for a date,' she said, suggestively and with a wink.

Will smirked; he didn't want to correct her. The offer seemed genuine, and though he had thought he was ready to tie the knot earlier today, he suddenly felt the urge to keep his options open with this gorgeous woman.

'I'll let you know,' he replied, playfully... more playfully than any man in a relationship should be replying to a woman he had (barely) just met. She stood from her booth, grabbing her purse as she did so. Will glanced at her lower body, about six feet away from where he was sitting – her blouse was tucked into a figure hugging dark green pencil skirt, and she had on a pair of slightly worn but well-polished yellow Mary Jane heels with silver trims. She looked every bit the girl next door, and Will's heart pounded as his eyes followed her slim figure back to her face.

Turning, the woman intoned 'see you 'round,' before sauntering out of the restaurant. Out of her sight, Will finally found the courage to bring the jewellery box from his coat pocket to the table, and opened it to reveal the overpriced but gorgeous diamond ring he had chosen for Terri, the woman he had wanted to spend the rest of his life with just half an hour ago. He wasn't sure anymore of what he wanted, but he now knew it wasn't what he'd planned for this evening, not by a long shot.

Suddenly, he stood up, shoving the ring roughly back into his pocket. He stood, no longer caring about the dinner reservation, and almost ran from the restaurant, wanting to follow the beautiful and mysterious woman he had met not ten minutes prior. Almost bowling over a waiter and a teenage couple, Will made it out to the parking lot. His eyes immediately zoned in on the woman, and he jogged right across the lot toward her, where she was unlocking the door to her dark forest green station wagon.

'Hey,' he panted, once he'd approached her. She turned around and smiled saucily.

'Hello, stranger,' she replied without missing a beat.

Will scratched the back of his head, caught a little off guard by her forwardness. 'I, uh...' he searched for something to say, 'I didn't catch your name back there.'

She grinned, obviously knowing the effect of her charm on the man before her. 'Emma,' she nodded, 'Emma Pillsbury.'

'Will Schuester,' Will replied, sticking his hand out to shake.

'I guess your date didn't show, huh?' Emma queried, seemingly ignoring Will's hand as she opened her car's door.

'Yeah, guess that one won't work out,' he joked in response, but actually with brutal honesty. He withdrew his hand and shoved it into his trouser pocket, a little embarrassed at her slight rejection.

'I guess I'll see you later then,' she smiled, receding into her car. Will nodded in response, a little confused by her earlier forthcomings being followed by, well, this.

As she pulled out of the lot, Will felt his phone buzzing, and realised he should have grabbed Emma's number before she'd left. He pulled it from his pocket: one new text message and two missed calls from Terri, one from 8:05 and one just a minute ago. Being in a restaurant, Will had naturally silenced his phone. His nerves earlier had probably caused him to miss the first call, adrenaline from following Emma the second. He unlocked his phone and read the text message:

_Where the hell are you Will? I've worked all day at sheets n things and you aren't even home for dinner._

She'd forgotten all about their night out, was the thought running through Will's mind as he retreated across the lot to his own car. Pulling the jewellery box from his pocket, he through it roughly into the back seat of his car. He didn't want to see it; he didn't want to think about Terri. He knew it was time they were over, because there was just something about Emma Pillsbury that made him feel like there could be more in his life than Terri.

Will pulled out of the Breadstix parking lot, not knowing exactly where he was going to go. He would have to go home and face Terri eventually, but for now, all he wanted to think about was the beautiful ginger woman who had saved his life.

AN: Haven't written any *story* type stuff in quite a while. This idea just came to me and I ran with it. Want more? Tell me. I've tried to leave it open to be longer if you want it! I know that Emma is totally out of character, but that will be explained later if I continue :) . Hope y'all loved it!


	2. Chapter 2

For a while, Will drove. He just drove. He drove until he couldn't see the lights of Lima reflecting in his rearview mirror. That's when he knew it was time to go home. He needed to face Terri, ready or not. Besides, it was a new school year in eleven short hours and he couldn't show up without sleep, or not show up at all. Making an illegal U-turn in the middle of the highway, Will felt as if he had just pulled himself free of quicksand and then jumped back in, the weight he had felt lifting from his shoulders when he'd run after Emma fell back down, full force.

He was dreading the confrontation with Terri. He knew it would go something like every other near break up they'd had in the past. Will telling her they were over. Terri begging him to stay, saying they could work through it, together, she just needed another chance. After a day or two apart, he always came back. But it wasn't going to happen this time. He was through with Terri, and that was it. He didn't care if he had to live with his parents – he didn't want to be near Terri or anything her poison could have soaked into. Tomorrow, he was going to be a free man.

It being a Sunday night in a small town, there wasn't much hustle and bustle when Will drove back through the outskirts of Lima. He weaved his way through the suburban streets of his hometown until he reached the apartment complex Terri and he had been living in for the past year, since he had returned from college and she had moved out of her parents' house. Terri's car was in place beside his empty parking space; he knew she wouldn't have bothered to go out of her way to look for him… she was probably asleep in their apartment right now. Will pulled into the space and locked up his car. He didn't think twice about the ring in the back seat. He dragged his feet sluggishly up the two flights of stairs to their apartment – _the _apartment, it wouldn't be his at all much longer – and unlocked the front door.

The pungent aroma of Terri's individual style of cooking wafted in as Will placed his keys and phone on the kitchen counter. To make up for her bland approach to cooking, Terri often added funny spices and herbs she would pick up at the markets or foreign grocery stores, resulting in an absurd palate of flavours in meals she would sometimes repeat two or three times in a week. That was another thing Will wouldn't miss; he never had the heart to tell Terri that he hated her cooking, and that he'd actually rather have take-out than another of her _Spaghetti & Meatballs & Mystery Indian Curry Powder_ meals. In fact, he would have rather eaten his own cooking, which, let's face it, rarely consisted of more than a boiled egg or a slice of toast.

Looking toward the source of the scent, Will spied the pan Terri must have brewed her latest concoction in, and a glance over his shoulder revealed the meal in question sitting on the table: one plate half cleared, the opposite untouched, both cold, and with a burnt out candle between them. The television proved to be the main source of light in the quiet apartment, muted on late night reruns of some ridiculous reality show Terri had probably loved in its initial run.

His energy all but gone, having not eaten anything since lunch time, Will sunk into the sofa, not bothered about changing out of his button down or trousers (his suit jacket sat long forgotten in the passenger seat of his car). With drooping eyelids, he attempted to figure out exactly what was going on in the reality show, but within minutes he had fallen dead asleep, for the first time in a very long time not in bed with Terri.

xxxx

Thankfully, the next morning Will's phone's alarm went off at six thirty, as he had set it the previous day. He knew he'd forget about setting one before bed, and had set it before going out for dinner, though he had expected to be forgetting under completely different circumstances, say, celebrating his and Terri's engagement. It only took a second for the entire night's events to come crashing down on him: Terri standing him up, his chasing a woman he had just met out to the parking lot, driving almost to the next town and back, and finally, returning home to a quiet, dark apartment.

The TV was still on, but at this hour was showing some very early morning news. Will unmuted it at listened for the headlines... war in Afghanistan, next presidential election... blah, blah, blah. It made his problems seem small, but all of it just sounded ridiculous to Will at this stage.

He sluggishly made his way into the kitchen, and yawned as he popped two slices of bread into the toaster (yes, one of the two things he could actually cook). Will picked up his phone from the counter. _3 New Messages, 5 Missed Calls_. All from Terri. He hadn't even noticed her calling last night. The phone was almost out of battery, so Will hooked it up to the charger before deleting all of Terri's messages without even reading them.

His toast popped out, and he grabbed one slice and bit off a corner, while wrapping the other for his lunch. Will threw that, an apple and a chocolate chip cookie (his one indulgence) into a brown paper bag, and dropped it beside his phone. Still munching away at his breakfast, Will quietly entered the bedroom, where, as he had expected, Terri was sleeping. She was curled up on her side of the bed, snoring softly. Will headed to the adjoining ensuite for a quick shower.

A few minutes later, Will emerged from the bathroom, body scrubbed and teeth brushed. Wrapped in a towel, he took a fresh shirt and pair of trousers from the dresser and got dressed for school. His briefcase was propped up against the end of the bed, already packed from before last night.

Will opened his and Terri's closet and grabbed his duffel bag. He packed some shirts, pants, underwear and socks, then took a pair of his shoes from the bottom shelf. He could come back for the rest of his things when Terri wasn't around, he just needed to get set up someplace, first.

Terri was stirring, which Will took as his cue to leave. He wasn't looking forward to a confrontation with Terri; the way he saw it, his mind was made up, and no amount of her begging could convince her to stay. He went back to the kitchen to grad his lunch bag, wallet and phone, only to hear something he'd been dreading for the past twelve hours.

'Will?' Terri whispered, hoarsely. 'Where the hell were you last night?' a bit more firmly, probably recalling what had happened last night, at least on her end.

'I'm not going to talk about this, Terri,' replied Will. He hesitated a little, before, 'I'm leaving, Terri; we're over.' He walked out of the room, taking out his key to leave.

'You're not leaving, Will. Why didn't you come home last night?' Terri persisted.

Will stopped opening the door and turned to face the woman he had wasted so many years of his life with. He paused for a moment, then, 'I was waiting for you to come to dinner. You never showed up. I guess this relationship just isn't important to you. I'd doubt if it ever was.'

Realisation appeared on Terri's face as the truth of what Will was saying hit her. Tears glistened in her eyes as desperation seeped into her features.

'Wait, _wait_, _Will! _You can't leave me, Will, you can't go!' she begged, grabbing onto his arm and trying to take the duffel from him.

'It's over, Terri. I'm not coming back,' Will said confidently, shaking her off and stepping out of the apartment. As he closed the door, he could see Terri sinking to the ground, crying and wailing his name. A small part of him wanted to comfort her, begged him to go back inside and make things right, not to send the careful balance of his life into a blender. But his resolve stayed intact, driving him to take the stairs down to his car and go to work. If anything could cheer him up, it was seeing and teaching the kids of McKinley High School.

Will unlocked his car and threw his things into the back seat, but as he did so, his eyes flashed to the engagement ring, whose box must have popped open at some time during the night. Dim light from the fluorescents in the lot reflected off the facets of the diamond, casting tiny beads of light around the back seat of the car. He threw his bags into the backseat, then got into the driver's side. Sinking into the seat, Will placed his forehead onto the steering wheel. His body shook, and the tears he had been holding back since the night before spilled from his eyes as he mourned the relationship that was finally, _finally_, over.

xxxx

AN: hope that was alright as a second chapter. Sorry for the wait; I've been so busy and this hasn't exactly been the top of my priorities list. We'll see Emma in the next chapter, if I ever get it written. I'm moving overseas in a week for a year, so updates are probably going to be sporadic, if at all. I might try and round this off after maybe two more chapters or something. I don't have a lot planned for it, but you can leave suggestions if you like. I've got like, a tiny bit of the next chapter planned. Anyway, tell me what you think !


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